Ovechkin amassed this career total in a variety of ways. He had over 550 even-strength goals and 320 power-play goals, the majority scored from the fabled "Ovi spot. " He's the leader in empty-net goals and overtime goals. Five of his goals came shorthanded, from a guy who has averaged eight seconds of penalty-killing time per game in his career.

When a lucky goal is scored, it’s often said "they don’t ask how." But they should ask when. Scoring climate is the overarching factor that puts Ovechkin’s goal scoring in another class. If you’re a regular to this space, we’ve explored Hockey-Reference’s era-adjusted scoring and a simple stat I created called Inflation Factor.